Dumbo (1941)

Dumbo
Directed by Ben Sharpsteen, Samuel Armstrong et al
Written by Joe Grant, Dick Huemer et al
1941/USA
Walt Disney Productions
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
#158 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Jim Crow: [singing] I seen a peanut stand /And heard a rubber band /I’ve seen a needle that winked its eye / But I been done seen about everything / When I see an elephant fly.[/box]

This is a sweet story and a beautifully animated Disney classic.

Mrs. Jumbo is has been anxiously expecting the arrival of the Stork and is overjoyed with her baby, whom she names Jumbo Jr.  But the poor baby has huge ears and all the mean, gossipy old maid elephants make fun of the little thing and call him Dumbo.  Soon all the kids at the circus start harassing the odd-ball and Mrs. Jumbo gets so infuriated and violent that she gets put in jail.  The heart-broken Dumbo finally finds a friend in Timothy Q. Mouse, who tries to find a way to make him a star.  Being the top of an elephant pyramid doesn’t work out but, when the two friends wind up at the top of a tree after a night of inadvertent drinking, Dumbo’s destiny becomes clear.

I can imagine this gives a few little kids a good dose of separation anxiety as I got pretty teary myself during “Baby Mine”.  I really love the drawing style in this movie.  It is more fluid somehow than earlier efforts.  Dumbo and his mom are the only animals in the cartoon that don’t talk and they have just as much personality, if not more, than any of them.

Frank Churchill and Oliver Wallace won the Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture. Churchill and Ned Washington were nominated for Best Original Song for “Baby Mine”.

Clip – “Baby Mine”